Death Penalty: Retained or Not?
... have killed,h states Mark Lostonzo, author of Just Revenge. They contend the executions deny the intrinsic value of human life. I strongly disagree with this view. Because human lives are equally valuable. Every individual has his or her basic rights for living. Once this right is deprived, justice needs to be done in some form. It goes without saying that we donft need to be too humane to those who are not humane to others at all. Secondly, from its social functions, death penalty reduces crimes because it will deter people from committing murder if they know that they will receive the death penalty if they are caught. What is more significant is that it sends a message to criminals that they wonft get away with it. It is a moral principle that the criminals deserve the penalty if they committed murder. Furthermore, even if it doesnft deter them from committing crimes, it will eliminate repeat offenders. Without the death penalty, it is hard to have a sound social justice system. Thirdly, it is much cheaper to execute a criminal than to incarcerate him for life. According to the statistics by a group of students who did research on prisoner data in US, at the end of 1992 State and Federal prisons reached a record high of 883,593 prisoners. This record means that approximately 1,143 prison bed spaces are needed per week due to overcrowding. To put this in an economic prospective, on the average each prisoner costs 22,000 per year, and the cost of new construction averages almost 54,0...